Pasta Problems

[JohnDB]

Pasta....it's Italian or Asian or redneck cut dumplings....possibly Midwest noodles too.

But the Italian stuff is what I love.

So....here's the recipe:
8oz (weight...use a scale) of duram wheat semolina.
2 eggs
1 Tbs water
Capfull olive oil
Salt
Pepper

Mix it up....well by hand. No mixer or food processor....just fingers and hands.
Now chances are that if you are using most common semolina it is going to come out feeling like sandy play dough at this point.
The expensive double milled stuff out of Italy wont....it's ready to use almost instantly. But those that bought in bulk and spent $0.40/lb for semolina....you get to put your sandy play dough ball in a zip lock and take a break for a while....like wait until tomorrow.
Those that bought the $5.50/lb stuff can get to work immediately.
There are some in between....so rest your doughs accordingly.

But once it's rested it's time to begin feeding it through your pasta machine. Plastic geared ones are worthless....get metal gears or replace your plastic gears with metal ones.

This recipe makes about 12 Oz of fresh pasta dough. Which is less than ¾ pound of dried pasta but eats like a whole pound at the same time. And boy howdy does it eat well....makes you want to slap somebody for feeding you that other stuff for so many years. But caution....it sits like lead bullets in your belly. So take it easy. No matter the temptation to not. This usually makes enough for four to 6 people as a side dish. (Depending upon portioning)

This pasta is superb all by itself with nothing more than garlic and butter to dress it with (cooks in a minute) or tossed in some pesto at the last minute.

Maybe making ravioli or agnaloti or capelini or tortellini or lasagne.

I like cappelini with an herbed Alfredo sauce made from scratch out of heavy cream myself....YMMV

 

[dev553344]

Pasta....it's Italian or Asian or redneck cut dumplings....possibly Midwest noodles too.

But the Italian stuff is what I love.

So....here's the recipe:
8oz (weight...use a scale) of duram wheat semolina.
2 eggs
1 Tbs water
Capfull olive oil
Salt
Pepper

Mix it up....well by hand. No mixer or food processor....just fingers and hands.
Now chances are that if you are using most common semolina it is going to come out feeling like sandy play dough at this point.
The expensive double milled stuff out of Italy wont....it's ready to use almost instantly. But those that bought in bulk and spent $0.40/lb for semolina....you get to put your sandy play dough ball in a zip lock and take a break for a while....like wait until tomorrow.
Those that bought the $5.50/lb stuff can get to work immediately.
There are some in between....so rest your doughs accordingly.

But once it's rested it's time to begin feeding it through your pasta machine. Plastic geared ones are worthless....get metal gears or replace your plastic gears with metal ones.

This recipe makes about 12 Oz of fresh pasta dough. Which is less than ¾ pound of dried pasta but eats like a whole pound at the same time. And boy howdy does it eat well....makes you want to slap somebody for feeding you that other stuff for so many years. But caution....it sits like lead bullets in your belly. So take it easy. No matter the temptation to not. This usually makes enough for four to 6 people as a side dish. (Depending upon portioning)

This pasta is superb all by itself with nothing more than garlic and butter to dress it with (cooks in a minute) or tossed in some pesto at the last minute.

Maybe making ravioli or agnaloti or capelini or tortellini or lasagne.

I like cappelini with an herbed Alfredo sauce made from scratch out of heavy cream myself....YMMV

I had grilled chicken alfredo from the "Olive Garden" a while back. Don't know if they have that restaurant in your neck of the woods. But here they also serve it with garlic seasoned bread sticks and a super tasty salad. Not the same pasta of course. Would love to try what you put in the OP. Love Italian foods. That and Asian are my favorites.

 

[JohnDB]

I had grilled chicken alfredo from the "Olive Garden" a while back. Don't know if they have that restaurant in your neck of the woods. But here they also serve it with garlic seasoned bread sticks and a super tasty salad. Not the same pasta of course. Would love to try what you put in the OP. Love Italian foods. That and Asian are my favorites.

It's a nationwide chain restaurant. Of course we have it but I refuse to go....
One it's pricey....second, I do better than they.
I can make fresh pasta cheap....like less than a dollar per lb.
Alfredo sauce gets a little pricey from using heavy cream and fresh parmesean. But it's not bad expensive. Like another $4-5/qt....with the cheese even moreso.

But it's still not as expensive as eating out at olive garden.

Part of the cost of being a recovered chef...champagne tastes but discount beer budget.

 

[Cassandra]

I had grilled chicken alfredo from the "Olive Garden" a while back. Don't know if they have that restaurant in your neck of the woods. But here they also serve it with garlic seasoned bread sticks and a super tasty salad. Not the same pasta of course. Would love to try what you put in the OP. Love Italian foods. That and Asian are my favorites.

Dev, have you had Indian food??? wonderful!!!

 

[dev553344]

It's a nationwide chain restaurant. Of course we have it but I refuse to go....
One it's pricey....second, I do better than they.
I can make fresh pasta cheap....like less than a dollar per lb.
Alfredo sauce gets a little pricey from using heavy cream and fresh parmesean. But it's not bad expensive. Like another $4-5/qt....with the cheese even moreso.

But it's still not as expensive as eating out at olive garden.

Part of the cost of being a recovered chef...champagne tastes but discount beer budget.

I understand that. I have family that takes me out to eat on birthdays or I wouldn't have gone. Want to talk about pricey, I was given $125 dollars to the "Outback Steakhouse" and we had a dinner of 5 and spent about $175. I had the ribeye and it was super.

 

[dev553344]

Dev, have you had Indian food??? wonderful!!!

Yes, I've been to an Indian restaurant when I worked as a Land Use Planner. It was fun, but I dislike curry so I have to pick and choose there. We also had Tia food off the 5 star spicy menu. Watch out for the red peppers, when you eat one it's like coach swatted the inside of your mouth with a paddle for losing the football game.

 

[JohnDB]

Today presents it own unique "pasta problem"....
In that I might not get to eat enough.

I'm currently proofing and soon will be baking some scratch, all butter and egg, Danishes.

Raspberry, blackberry, peach and whatever else I can find in my pantry.

And if all you have had is the Danish reminiscent of a donut....you do NOT understand Danish whatsoever. It's breakfast baked into a piece of bread....spiced with cardamom....*sigh*

I'll give the recipe later....

 

[JohnDB]

Whoops.
I had a massive error....
Been a while since I've made these Danish outside of my bakery without the use of a proof box.
I should have egg washed them just before putting them in the oven to bake. (For the glossy shine) And I made them somewhat smaller so they would give everyone a taste....but some of the pinwheels aren't all they should be.
Well....I got Sunday School in the morning. They might decide that they are fit to eat.

 

[JohnDB]

 

[ChristisGod]

dang where do you live

 

[JohnDB]

dang whee do you live

Right off the town square of Nowhere Georgia....where the town clock still chimes on the hour and half hour.

 

[dev553344]

View attachment 36326

Every so often I get some danishes from the bakery near me. I get the cheese and also the berry. Very similar but not as good as home cooked for sure.

 

[JohnDB]

3⅓Oz sugar
½Oz salt
3oz butter
5oz egg yolks
10oz milk
24 Oz AP flour
1½tsp cardamom
⅛Cup golden label yeast (low moisture yeast for high sugar dough)

1lb butter to roll in

Mix it up in your stand mixer with dough hooks. Everything, except the yeast and cardamom, needs to be measured by weight...and the butter mixed into the dough needs to be either melted or very soft.
Let the dough rest overnight in the fridge. If everything like milk and eggs are cold it's very much preferred.

Then the next day....
Roll out the dough in a big longish rectangle. (I know that some demo the envelope method....I ain't got time to play that much)
Beat the butter until plastickey and spread onto ⅔ of the dough keeping that last third clean. Don't be afraid of dusting the dough with flour....you don't want it to stick....like ever. Fold the clean third over to cover a third ofvthe buttered dough and then the remaining buttered dough over the folded dough. like a tri-fold wallet or letter is folded.

Then
*****major important part here****
The butter needs to be at the same exact stiffness of the dough. Which is usually around 62-65⁰F....maybe a little less or more depending upon a bunch of factors but the stiffness must match. So likely at this point fold up your dough either in half or thirds again (in the other direction so that it seals one end inside of the dough) and refrigerate it.

Then later when the butter has cooled enough roll out that rectangle again...alternating sides to seal in the open end to keep the butter inside. Do this at least twice more....

Then....the next day EARLY in the morning....roll out the dough to roughly ⅛" thick....maybe a quarter inch but that's getting carried away IMHO. Make pinwheels with squares or trays with cute ends or whatever (there are youtube videos)

The jelly in the center is mostly for looks....same with the simple powdered sugar frosting. (Milk, kayro syrup and 10x sugar) the bread is the thing with these....very rich and very tasty bread. The light sweetness of jelly or frosting cuts through the richness of the bread and aroma of cardamom to provide a pleasant relief.

These completely qualify as a hearty breakfast .

And the pic above shows how many Danish this makes....more than enough to share.

 

[JohnDB]

Every so often I get some danishes from the bakery near me. I get the cheese and also the berry. Very similar but not as good as home cooked for sure.

Yeah....these are extremely addictive. I used to be a partner in a high end bakery. We didn't do very eclectic food...just normal simple things...but elevated them to the full measure and baked them well. Great food is not complicated or full of impossible to find arcane ingredients. It is not cheap either when using real AA butter or fresh ground cardamom and shell eggs. But....the taste and flavor of the basic foods with no shortcuts or cheap, fake ingredients is unmistakable. Yes, you do have to have some talent you learned by trial and error....but...people go crazy for these things...it's comfort food. Some people refused to walk through my door more than once a month because they had a problem and my food didn't.

 

[Nancy]

It's a nationwide chain restaurant. Of course we have it but I refuse to go....
One it's pricey....second, I do better than they.
I can make fresh pasta cheap....like less than a dollar per lb.
Alfredo sauce gets a little pricey from using heavy cream and fresh parmesean. But it's not bad expensive. Like another $4-5/qt....with the cheese even moreso.

But it's still not as expensive as eating out at olive garden.

Part of the cost of being a recovered chef...champagne tastes but discount beer budget.

John,
Totally agreed! My older brother has the family pasta machine (old and metal ) We grew up on pasta like, almost daily! My mom and I were not big on it but my father had to have it every day, without fail. He would also but a ton of hot pepper flakes, black pepper, imported cherry tomatoes he would put a couple of them on, then poured some of the pepper juice all over his mound of pasta, made us 7 kids tear up for the burning of our eyes because of how hot it was!

I like to make gnocchis. It took many attempts to find the perfect combination of potato, flour, cheese, egg. They come out perfect every time now! After they rise to top of pot, put in oven safe dishes and cover is (homemade) sauce, add some bite sized beat balls or sausage in it, little ricotta and then parmesan and lastly mozzarella (I like sharp provolone) over the top, stick in oven to melt and brown a bit...serve with authentic caesar salad and parmesan/spinach/provolone garlic bread...grab a fresh crusty Italian or french bread and make it one big loaf of garlic bread...wrap in foil and toss in oven for 10 or 15 minutes. Mama Mia, that's a spicy meataball!!! LOL!! I'm hungry now.

 

[JohnDB]

John,
Totally agreed! My older brother has the family pasta machine (old and metal ) We grew up on pasta like, almost daily! My mom and I were not big on it but my father had to have it every day, without fail. He would also but a ton of hot pepper flakes, black pepper, imported cherry tomatoes he would put a couple of them on, then poured some of the pepper juice all over his mound of pasta, made us 7 kids tear up for the burning of our eyes because of how hot it was!

I like to make gnocchis. It took many attempts to find the perfect combination of potato, flour, cheese, egg. They come out perfect every time now! After they rise to top of pot, put in oven safe dishes and cover is (homemade) sauce, add some bite sized beat balls or sausage in it, little ricotta and then parmesan and lastly mozzarella (I like sharp provolone) over the top, stick in oven to melt and brown a bit...serve with authentic caesar salad and parmesan/spinach/provolone garlic bread...grab a fresh crusty Italian or french bread and make it one big loaf of garlic bread...wrap in foil and toss in oven for 10 or 15 minutes. Mama Mia, that's a spicy meataball!!! LOL!! I'm hungry now.

Something similar I happen to like is Perogis....
Kinda like a potatoe ravioli or angoloti....
It's a simple dough that goes around highly seasoned mashed potatoes, boiled and then fried. Great stuff! I seen some in the frozen food section of the store....I tried them and they are okayish for what they are...but definitely perogi from scratch is the ONLY way to go.

 

[JohnDB]

So tonight I'm trying something new....kinda.

I've done pork roulades before (but it's been a while) and tonight I am trying one I've been itching to try.
Apple and ginger stuffed pork loin with an Asian caramel sauce. (Gratin potatoes to go with).

I'm hoping for success. I'll let you know.

 

[dev553344]

So tonight I'm trying something new....kinda.

I've done pork roulades before (but it's been a while) and tonight I am trying one I've been itching to try.
Apple and ginger stuffed pork loin with an Asian caramel sauce. (Gratin potatoes to go with).

I'm hoping for success. I'll let you know.

That sounds really good. The best pork I've ever had was in Hawaii at one of their celebrations. It was awesome.

When I was younger and since I grew up on an Indian reservation the tribe sometimes would have a salmon bake. Really fun too.

 

[JohnDB]

That sounds really good. The best pork I've ever had was in Hawaii at one of their celebrations. It was awesome.

When I was younger and since I grew up on an Indian reservation the tribe sometimes would have a salmon bake. Really fun too.

Tonight's dinner of half a loin stuffed and rolled was ok...I got some tweaks to make but nothing major....caramel sauce was spot on.
So half a loin could have fed 5-6 people (with sides)

Like I said...I like to practice before having guests....wife liked it....it was unique enough that I think that most will like it....certainly nothing like it around here.